What our Nations are up against!

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2019: This blog was ranked #50 in top 100 blogs about adoption. Let's make it #1...

2019: WE NEED A TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION Commission in the US now for the Adoption Programs that stole generations of children... Goldwater Institute's work to dismantle ICWA is another glaring attempt at cultural genocide.

Washington, DC – The three leading national Native advocacy organizations monitoring the custody case of “Baby Veronica”, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, will announce the next legal steps they plan to take related to the ongoing case. The announcement comes following last week’s order by the South Carolina Supreme Court to the State’s Family Court to expedite the custody transfer process of Veronica from her father, also a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, to the adoptive couple involved in the case.

What: National press teleconference with national Native organizations to outline their next legal steps related to Baby Veronica case.

When: Monday,July 22, 2013 - 1 p.m. eastern / 12 p.m. central

Details: (877) 856-2376 – Call ID# 22752930

Who: Leaders of three leading national tribal advocacy organizations monitoring Baby Veronica case:

-Jacqueline Pata, Executive Director, National Congress of American Indians

Baby Veronica deserves a fair and impartial tribunal to determine her best interests - and the new lawsuit will address this, depending on the outcome in SC appeal.Tribes are addressing this late - ICWA cannot and must not be ignored. History of Indian Adoptions - how it happened - cannot be forgotten.Sadly, this case points out that ICWA was purposefully ignored and putting her up for adoption never should have happened.

Really anonymouse? The father and the CNO were represented. The GAL for the child(HIRED by the C's) stated this needed a re-hearing for the best interests and knew those would not be necessarily in favor of the potential adoptive parents but could and would likely leave the child with her father. The courts chose to ignore 99% of the facts and went with what they thought was an easy out. Not so fast say the Native Nations!

It is about the Tribe but also fathers rights, if he were a white man we wouldn't be having a discussion about who the child belongs with....but this is definately an affront to tribal Sovereignty, a childs right to be with her biological father and extended family---an aspect of cultural rights that need to be honored due to th uniques government to government relationship the Cherokee body has with the US Government. Its simple on its face a chid belongs with her blood family why should adoption as a commodity practice ship a child off to a "loving white couple" who are not blood/family---when the father is willing and capable, as are his extended family and wife available to raise and have done so for the last 19 months.... the ICWA law is clear and the lawyers who did this transaction deliberately lied about the fathers name/etc....this adoption is illegal....and this isnt going to fly--TRUST THAT. Olivia H. (Eastern Band Descendant) 98505

Thanks so much for the comments on this post. We as adoptees can and do imagine what is ahead for Veronica if she is removed from her bio dad. Adoption is very hard on some adoptees. Those who adopt us don't always understand how much we want to go home, to be with our biological relatives and tribes. Slanting the news to create sympathy for the future adoptive parents infuriates me.On this blog, we are hoping to prevent any further trauma by having Veronica stay with her dad as she has for the past several months.As an adoptee, I pray she doesn't have to be adopted.

Please: Share your reaction, your thoughts, and your opinions. Be passionate, be unapologetic. Offensive remarks will not be published. We are getting more and more spam. Comments will be monitored. Use the comment form at the bottom of this website which is private and sent direct to Trace.

Survivors, write your stories. Write your parents stories. Write the elders stories. Do not be swayed by the colonizers to keep quiet. Tribal Nations have their own way of keeping stories alive.... Trace

Help in available!

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Diane Tells His Name

Please support NARF

Indian Country is under attack. Native tribes and people are fighting hard for justice. There is need for legal assistance across Indian Country, and NARF is doing as much as we can. With your help, we have fought for 48 years and we continue to fight.

It is hard to understand the extent of the attacks on Indian Country. We are sending a short series of emails this month with a few examples of attacks that are happening across Indian Country and how we are standing firm for justice.

Today, we look at recent effort to undo laws put in place to protect Native American children and families. All children deserve to be raised by loving families and communities. In the 1970s, Congress realized that state agencies and courts were disproportionately removing American Indian and Alaska Native children from their families. Often these devastating removals were due to an inability or unwillingness to understand Native cultures, where family is defined broadly and raising children is a shared responsibility. To stop these destructive practices, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

After forty years, ICWA has proven to be largely successful and many states have passed their own ICWAs. This success, however, is now being challenged by large, well-financed opponents who are actively and aggressively seeking to undermine ICWA’s protections for Native children. We are seeing lawsuits across the United States that challenge ICWA’s protections. NARF is working with partners to defend the rights of Native children and families.

where were you adopted?

To Veronica Brown

Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.

Join!

National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network (NISCWN)

Membership Application Form

The Network is open to all Indigenous and Foster Care Survivors any time.

ADOPTION TRUTH

As the single largest unregulated industry in the United States, adoption is viewed as a benevolent action that results in the formation of “forever families.” The truth is that it is a very lucrative business with a known sales pitch. With profits last estimated at over $1.44 billion dollars a year, mothers who consider adoption for their babies need to be very aware that all of this promotion clouds the facts and only though independent research can they get an accurate account of what life might be like for both them and their child after signing the adoption paperwork.

This has happened to many, many Native children! We must protect ICWA and enforce it so that it stops! Even non-Native families that are not racist cannot provide a Native child with cultural knowledge and belonging. Only their tribes can do that. #ProudtoProtectICWAhttps://t.co/oA1e5kiK4k

A4: Twenty-one states filed an amicus brief in this case in support of #ICWA. These states, which are home to over 70 percent of tribal nations, know that ICWA helps them better serve Native children and families.#ProudtoProtectICWA

TWO WORLDS Book 1 (second edition)

Two Worlds anthology (Vol. 1)

“…sometimes shocking, often an emotional read…this book is for individuals interested in the culture and history of the Native American Indian, but also on the reading lists of universities offering ethnic/culture/Native studies.”

“Well-researched and obviously a subject close to the heart of the authors/compilers, I found the extent of what can only be described as ‘child-snatching’ from the Native Americans quite staggering. It’s not something I was aware of before…”

“The individual pieces are open and honest and give a good insight into the turmoil of dislocation from family and tribe… I think it does have value and a story to tell. I was affected by the stories I read, and amazed by the facts presented…. because it is saying something new, interesting and often astonishing.”

Did you know?

Good words

I agree with you on the caring of “orphans” – true orphans, not “paper orphans” as Kathryn Joyce describes in her book, The Child Catchers. The most important thing to remember, however, is that the orphan’s original identity and family connection and heritage must remain intact and available to him or her forever. This business of adoption – and I do mean the multi-billion-dollar, unregulated business of adoption – of wiping out the child’s original identity, falsifying birth records with the adopters’ names, altering facts such as place of birth, severing familial kinship, must stop … Immediately. And the outrageous injustices foisted upon adoptees and their families for the past 100 years must be addressed and righted. We are faced today with six to seven million people who were basically legally kidnapped, sold to the highest bidder, their identities falsified, and placed in a lifelong, imposed witness protection program for which there is no legal recourse. Then told by church officials, agency and government functionaries that they have no right to know who they are, to do genealogy or learn about important family medical history, or know the identity of or associate with blood relatives. This is how the Judeo-Christian society has interpreted “caring for orphans”, for it’s own selfish interests and greed. Starting with Georgia Tann, the woman charged with kidnapping and selling 5,000 children, most of whom were given to the rich and powerful who then colluded with her to “seal” adoptions and cover their nefarious activities (see, for example, Gov. Herbert Lehman, NY, 1935).

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Every. Day.

adoptees take back adoption narrative and reject propaganda

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